El Lib Front's mantra is: "Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products. Our team's goal is to make it easier to move data in and out."

Watchful readers may notice that none of this includes the immensely valuable data of user search history, or ads that you have clicked on.

To gain access to a history of Google searches, readers will need to turn on "Google Web History", and then regularly slurp up history in batches of 1,000 via an RSS reader, then re-form this data themselves.

The process is laborious, and seems to discourage users from accessing this data. A strange coincidence, given that search is what Google uses to refine its algorithms and make its money. ®